Stove-top Smoker: Favorite Things to Smoke?

[daveb]

FWIW, Cameron's recommends you use a medium heat setting. It is also suggested that duck breasts be smoked using apple, cherry or pecan wood chips and that breasts be smoked for 20 minutes.

 

Thanks Elsie,  Your post made me realize I had overlooked part of cooking the duck breast.

 

At first reading I shook my head and thought of duck breast jerky.  Then realized I had left out my assumption that the fat had been rendered off the breast traditionally in a skillet prior to going in the smoker.  I described smoking to finish the breast and not to completely cook it. 

 

I don't think putting a raw breast in the Cameron and allowing the fat to render to the bottom of a heated pan would be a good idea and frankly never considered it.  But I'm not afraid to learn something new.  DB

Edited June 13, 2015 by daveb (log)

[ElsieD]

Cameron does not mention whether or not you do anything with the duck once the 20 minutes are up. I would think you would want to render the fat either before or after smoking the breast. I normally line the drip pan to catch any fat.

[Josh71]

I made some pork satay in the weekend and then grilled them using griddle.

 

And then I smoked them for 10 minutes using Cameron to get smokey flavor (alder wood chips).

 

The smoke taste was present, although not too strong.

 

But, I got some comment from my gf "This is wrong, tasted like BBQ and not like traditional satay where we could smell the charcoal"

 

So, anyone used charcoal with stove top smoker?

 

Well, charcoal usually big. I imagine to smash them into small pieces like wood chip stove top smoker size.

 

I know, people might ask "Why don't you just grill the satay using charcoal grill?"

 

Mmmm, I just want the smoke flavor, and cleaning Cameron is much much easier lol.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Josh71 (log)

[KennethT]

Charcoal flavor and "smoke" flavor are 2 different things that have nothing to do with each other. If you want that charcoal flavor, the only thing I can think of doing is smashing a lump or two of charcoal until it turns into a coarse powder and use that instead of the wood chips in the bottom of the smoker.

However, according to Modernist Cuisine, true "grilled over charcoal" flavor has nothing to do with the charcoal itself, but rather, the vaporization of dripping fat onto the hot coals. This can't be replicated in the stove top smoker.

ETA: The good thing about grilling satay is that they are small - so you don't need to set up a large bbq grill. You can just heat up a few charcoal pieces and put them in a small metal box with a grate on top to grill a few satay at a time. You can put the box on top of a burner on your stove so you don't have to worry about fire.

I've been looking at portable ceramic gas infrared heaters. They get ridiculously hot and would be great for doing satay - but grilling makes a lot of smoke, and I don't have a hood that vents outside - so until I can rig something up, I'm satay-less for now...

Edited June 22, 2015 by KennethT (log)

[rotuts]

exactly    it also adds due to its high heat little bits of 'burnt-ness'

[Shelby]

I was recently gifted a Cameron smoker.  I thought I'd give it a test run last night using some German brats that we got for Christmas.  Gosh this little smoker is fun, easy and it does a great job!  Put about 4t. of wood chips in the middle, put a piece of foil down, put the rack on top, place your food, slide the lid on, put it on the burner (I did mine on low because I have a gas stove and the burner I used gets really hot).  In about 20 minutes smoked tomatoes and brats  

 

 

[KennethT]

12 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I was recently gifted a Cameron smoker.  I thought I'd give it a test run last night using some German brats that we got for Christmas.  Gosh this little smoker is fun, easy and it does a great job!  Put about 4t. of wood chips in the middle, put a piece of foil down, put the rack on top, place your food, slide the lid on, put it on the burner (I did mine on low because I have a gas stove and the burner I used gets really hot).  In about 20 minutes smoked tomatoes and brats  

 

 

 

To make clean up a little easier, I put a piece of foil on the bottom of the pan, then the wood chips on that, then another piece of foil, then the drip pan covered with (yes another) foil, then the rack and teh food.  When the wood chips smoulder, they excrete a brown gunk for lack of a better word that's hard to get off the pan unless you use a lot of elbow grease.

 

I've smoked a piece of marinated pork shoulder before getting the SV treatment to make achiote pork - that worked really well.  Smoked chicken prior to SV also good... smoked duck breast....

[Shelby]

8 minutes ago, KennethT said:

To make clean up a little easier, I put a piece of foil on the bottom of the pan, then the wood chips on that, then another piece of foil, then the drip pan covered with (yes another) foil, then the rack and teh food.  When the wood chips smoulder, they excrete a brown gunk for lack of a better word that's hard to get off the pan unless you use a lot of elbow grease.

 

I've smoked a piece of marinated pork shoulder before getting the SV treatment to make achiote pork - that worked really well.  Smoked chicken prior to SV also good... smoked duck breast....

When I got my Vacmaster I wanted vac pack every thing in the house, now I want to smoke everything lol.

[rotuts]

mine is still in the box

 

soon though

 

it wii be V 2

 

looking forward to it

Edited January 3, 2020 by rotuts (log)

[KennethT]

55 minutes ago, Shelby said:

When I got my Vacmaster I wanted vac pack every thing in the house, now I want to smoke everything lol.

For a while, years ago, I used it all the time... everything looked like a nail.

 

Oh, another thing on the list - I would lightly smoke burgers and then cook on my cast iron grill to give it more of a cooked over charcoal flavor...

[Shelby]

I've had some thin pieces of salmon in the freezer waiting for inspiration.  Decided to smoke them yesterday in the stovetop smoker.  I used some apple wood and did them about 15 mins.  Worked like a charm   And thanks for the foil tip @KennethT.  Made for easy clean up.

 

 

 

[rotuts]

@Shelby 

 

did you do these from Fz ?

 

or refrigerator-thawed.

 

Tj's has some fresh vac'd-is salmon.

 

farmed from Norway 

 

I might try this w the freshest piece I can find.

[Shelby]

3 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Shelby 

 

did you do these from Fz ?

 

or refrigerator-thawed.

 

Tj's has some fresh vac'd-is salmon.

 

farmed from Norway 

 

I might try this w the freshest piece I can find.

 I thawed them in the fridge first.  I imagine from frozen would work well too.  I'd add maybe7-10 mins?  They are really good--I did a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice before smoking.